Author. Walker. Badass.

diet

We all know my struggles with weight loss. I mean I have been on every diet known to man I swear. I feel my whole life has been a struggle to get weight off and keep it off. It is a real issue. I have such a love/hate with food. I love to eat it and I hate that it makes me gain weight. Some people feel food is an addiction and for the longest time, I felt that is what my problem was…I was addicted to food. What I didn’t realize is that I was actually addicted to something else…sugar. You may think I am full of crap, but read on. You will understand as I explain my road on the Wilder Way.

What way you ask? The Wilder Way! Back in May, I decided to try out an 8 week challenge to kick start my weight loss yet again. My friends had all been talking about how author Jasinda Wilder was coming out with a weight loss book and how they were going to try it out. I admit, I was curious since I am always looking for a new way to try and lose my stoob. I joined Jasinda’s online support group on Facebook and started reading about what she has coined the Wilder Way. I mean she looks amazeballs with losing the equivalent to a whole person. For reals. There has to be something to it if she has lost that much weight, right? I ordered the book, Big Girls Do It Running, which sounded perfect for this Fat Girl Running and started reading. 8 weeks? I can do that. That is nothing. Then I got to the part where Jasinda explains about sugar and sugar addiction. Nah. That can’t be me. I am not addicted to sugar. I hardly eat sweets. Nope. She totally is not speaking to me. I kept reading and got the basics. The first 4 weeks of the challenge you slowly cut out sugar from your diet and detox from it. The next 4 you learn all about good fats and carbs and how to carb cycle. It sounded super interesting and something I could do. But I was still convinced I was not addicted to sugar.

This book changed my life. For reals.

I started the challenge and found it to be pretty easy. I can do this. Cutting out sugar slowly meant I had to make different food/drink choices. But I was ready for this. I needed this. Was I addicted to sugar? Nah. Not me. Then the headaches started. About week 3 I was plagued with 3 to 4 days of solid headaches, some even migraines. It was awful. The headaches were rancid and I could not figure out why until I read in the book about the signs of sugar detox. The first one? Headaches. Huh. After those 3-4 days, the headaches went away and I had more energy. I was sleeping better. My skin looked amazing. I felt so much better. Hmmmm. After 4 weeks, I was sugar free and have not looked back. Maybe there was something to this sugar addiction Jasinda was talking about. I was sugar addicted and did not even realize it.

After I became sugar free, the weight started coming off. I started learning about good carbs and good fats and how to switch foods up to carb cycle. Jasinda uses plate colors to help you figure this out. White plates for meals with carbs and lean proteins, black plates for no carbs and full fats (including ice cream and chocolate made with stevia!). It was the easiest thing I have ever done. BFF has even figured out what color plate I am eating when we go out or when she looks at my lunch. It is that easy. I swear it is.

Example of a white plate meal. Salmon with cornmeal and seasonings, sprouted brown rice and peas. Yes. I made this.

I completed the 8 weeks and kept going. Weight keeps steadily coming off and I didn’t even have to change my lifestyle that much. I have found the Wilder Way to be the easiest and most flexible eating plan I have ever been on. Hands down. I honestly don’t think I ever realized how much sugar was in the foods that I was eating. I never stopped to read labels before and now I am. I no longer buy foods that contain sugar or drink soda. I don’t eat fast food like I used to eat it and I don’t even crave it. I am fuller when I eat. I cook! I rediscovered my love of cooking with the Wilder Way and making dinner is now a pleasure. I can still eat out. I am even training for a 5k! My initial dream of doing the Tinker bell 5k at Disneyland is probably going to happen. All because of the Wilder Way. Jasinda has changed the way I look at food and I am almost 15 pounds down (should be by next week) in 12 weeks now. That is about a pound a week which is a good healthy weight loss. Last night I did a Naked Dance of Joy when my towel closed all the way around me. Epic Naked Dance of Joy I tell you. All because a towel fit all the way around me without showing a big chunk of skin. It is the little things.

So check it out. Take the Wilder Way challenge. Become sugar free. I promise to keep you updated on my progress if you keep me updated on yours.

Oh yeah. I didn’t die today. I realized I was sugar addicted but didn’t die. I am sugar free Fat Girl on the Wilder Way Running. The experiment continues…

Sometimes when I can’t figure out what to write, I ask BFF and she gives me a random topic (and I do mean random) to stir up my creative process. You all want to shoot me some random topics, then please do so!! Today, I decided to sprint with some author friends to get some writing done for you all. Sprinting (not the running kind) is when we all, in different parts of the US, at a designated time write as much as we can for an hour and see who wins. It really makes me write (because I like a challenge and I like to win) and sometimes get a blog for you which I am hoping this will be but we shall see. Today’s random blog topic, brought to you by BFF, is tofu. Yup. Tofu. I warned you it would be random so let’s see….what can I say about tofu, except for it is disgusting. Hmmmm…

A lot of people I know have been trying to get healthy, something I am always trying to do and failing at…repeatedly. Everyone on my unit seems to be doing the Whole 30 or clean eating or some shit like that and I am over here eating frosting out of a can. No joke. The struggle is real. I am surrounded by people trying to eat well and fill themselves full of veggies and fruit and other such weird things. To say I am unsure of all of this stuff is an understatement. I want to eat healthy. I want to lose weight. I want to look good naked. But I also want tacos…and pizza…and noodles. Sometimes I feel like yelling like Oprah does on the new Weight Watchers commercial about loving bread to all these people. Because I do love bread. One thing I cannot stomach, no matter how hard I try is tofu. I am pretty sure this is a texture issue for me and is why I cannot stomach tofu.

Tofu to me has the weirdest consistency and texture. Hence the texture issue. What? It is a real thing. BFF has texture issues too. She thinks anything gummy tastes human to her. Not that I want to know if she knows what human tastes like and how, but that is how she described it to me. I personally love gummi anything, but since I have a texture issue with things like tofu, eggplant and especially flan (I just gagged writing that word), I get her texture issue. I know, I know. Everyone tells me tofu tastes so good because it takes on the flavor of whatever you cook it with, but really I cannot get past the conglomerated blob of mush that it looks like when you take it out of the tub it comes in. I mean, what the hell is tofu supposed to taste like if it takes on the flavors of things around you? Does it taste like nothing? Does it have a flavor? Tofu kind of freaks me out a little to be honest. It just looks like something you would eat in a science fiction movie. Weird little block of gelatinous goo that people eat with relish. Ew. Nope not me. I don’t even eat it in my miso soup. I pick it out so I don’t have to put the offensive stuff in my mouth. Talking about this though, reminds me of a funny story involving Little Red and tofu.

You shouldn’t be able to cut your food off a block. This grosses me out.

My god daughters absolutely love sushi. Those girls beg me to take them to our local favorite sushi place when they visit (of course I say yes, because sushi) and they have a Christmas Eve tradition with their parents of eating sushi. Parenting done right I tell ya. Kids, if introduced to something early enough, will usually eat it or grow to like it. The Reds have no problem eating things like quail eggs and love to pick out different sushi rolls to try. I love it. Sometimes, Big Red will just get some tempura shrimp and quail eggs. It is her favorite thing. Little Red also has a favorite and hers is miso soup. The first time I took them to eat sushi and ordered some for myself, she asked to try it. She must have been about 3 or 4 at the time. I gave her some and she proceeded to eat the whole bowl, declaring it her favoritest thing ever. So much for me eating my soup.

The next time we went out to eat sushi, BFF and I were in the car with the Reds and asked the what they wanted to eat. Little Red proceeds to tell us all about how she wants “cheese soup”. BFF and I look at each other in confusion, because there is no cheese soup at the sushi restaurant. BFF asks her again and we are given the same reply…”Cheese soup” complete with an exasperated look that only a 4-year-old can give you. We both just sat there and looked at each other and the menu trying to figure out what the heck she meant by “cheese soup”. I think we must have scoured that menu over and over looking for the “cheese soup” trying to figure out what the heck she meant. Finally, BFF leans towards her and asks if she has had the “cheese soup” at the restaurant before. Little Red gives her an annoyed 4 year old look and replies that she had it last time because I let her eat mine. OHHHHHH! She must mean miso soup! We giggled a little and then I ordered some for her. When it came, she looked at us and calmly held up her spoon with a chunk of tofu in it and said “See! Cheese soup Nina!” Neither of us had the heart to tell her it was tofu and we all to this day call it “cheese soup”. To this day, I don’t even know if Little Red knows that it is tofu she is eating because she still calls it cheese.

Now, don’t try to convince me that I just haven’t had tofu cooked the right way or that I am wrong. It really is a texture thing. I can’t do it And don’t try and sneak it to me either. I will know. Really I can tell. Ew. Just ew. As for all this Whole 30, clean eating, sugar purge stuff….nope. Not going to happen. I like to eat way to much. I will stick with Weight Watchers and walking. I can’t limit myself and cut things out of my diet. I will try to eat healthier but I can’t cut hings out of my diet just because everyone else is doing it. Fresh veggies and fruit…sure. But no tofu. That is totally not happening. Not in this lifetime. I am going to go back to eating my frosting out of the can thank you very much.

Oh yeah. I didn’t die today. I did get assigned a random topic by BFF and actually wrote about it even though it is gross (Little Red made that topic even better) but I didn’t die. I am Fat Girl with texture issues and giggling about “cheese soup” Running. The experiment continues…

Dread and gloom. That should have been my music for this morning as I stood in my bathroom and prepared to step on the scale. Vacation was gonna catch up with me right here. I got up uber early this am and met BFF at the Y after her work shift to ride the fat jiggling bike. She is gonna kick my flass into shape I tell ya! No rest for the weary! Pretty sure the conversation went like this: The Brain: “Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?” Pinky: “I think so, Brain, but how are we going to make pencils that taste like bacon? Or maybe we should make bacon that tastes like pencils. Narf.” That’s how awake I was at 0720 this am. I did notice something though as my sweat was running down the end of my nose….I was able to increase the level of the bike without pain today. Please let the steroids have kicked in! It doesn’t feel as sore so hopefully no tear and no MRI in my future. So despite having eaten my way through Memphis and creating a tsunami in the pool the one time, really the only working out I accomplished was walking. A LOT of walking. However, this really made me dread the scale this am. I needed to know though. Were the biscuits and gravy giggling from my sides knowing I would be up in weight. Pretty sure I ate enough to feed a third world country and my arteries are probably clogging right now thinking about all the fried food I had. Fried seems to be its own category in the South. Fried green tomatoes, fried mac and cheese, and even fried pickles. Yes. Fried pickles were on every menu I saw. I should have tried them but that thought was a little scary to me. Pretty sure some pregnant woman thought up the idea to deep fat fry a pickle. Back to the scenario this am after leaving my greasy imprint on the fat jiggling bike, I decided to step on the scale to see the damage Memphis had done to the experiment. The doom song was playing like this:

I took a deep breath, stepped on the scale and looked down. Shut the front door! THAT can’t be right! Wait…I need to weigh myself again. Is that seriously the right number? It was! Anticipating at least a five-pound gain, I was not prepared for what the scale said to me this am. HALF A POUND GAIN? That’s it? WHAT? Holy experiment on vacation Batman! I was only up half a pound? The fat girl dance of joy then occurred. Until I caught a glimpse of that in the bathroom mirror. Ew. Don’t do that where you can see yourself naked ever again. I was so expecting such a bigger gain that I could not believe my eyes. Pretty sure I weighed myself three or four times. Same number every time. WOW. I guess I didn’t do too bad a job on vacation then despite my own attempts to become fatter. Remember the buffet. This gives me hope for when I go to DL next time because I know I won’t work out there. There is so much walking there. Plus I spend so much time in the park, I don’t know how I would even find the time to work out. And it’s DL….I have NEVER worked out while I am there and probably am not gonna start this trip. It’s the Happiest Place On Earth and to a fat girl that category does NOT include working out. True story.

It’s back to reality for me tonight with work so I am gonna take my half a pound up from eating my way through Memphis (I might not have to wear that fat Elvis jumpsuit I bought) and stuff it into some scrubs. This means another early workout session to help keep me on track. I like to think maybe it won’t be as fat jiggling as today and maybe if I can poop some more I will be half a pound lighter. You never know. A fat girl can dream. Where’s my colon cleanse again? It’s been one week since the steroid shot so only one more week of low impact and then I am able to try to do high impact again if I want or can. We shall see.

Oh yeah. I didn’t die today. Almost from the shock of only gaining half a pound but I didn’t die. I am fat girl with only half a pound of extra greasy fat jiggling on her post vacation. The experiment continues…..